The formation of 2K Marin was announced on December 17, 2007.[1][2] The studio was spun out of 2K, a publishing subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, to develop a second installment in the BioShock series, following disputes with Ken Levine, the director of the first game.[3]
In April 2010, for the development of XCOM (later The Bureau: XCOM Declassified), sister studio 2K Australia adopted the 2K Marin name.[4] The studio dropped the 2K Marin label in November 2011 and returned to the previous 2K Australia name, this time for BioShock Infinite.[5][6]
On October 17, 2013, 2K announced that 2K Marin had been hit with massive staff reductions, laying off the majority of employees.[7] All remaining developers were to be shifted to an unnamed 2K studio founded with Rod Fergusson.[8] That studio, like 2K Marin based in Novato, was announced by Fergusson in September that year.[9][10] Some former employees agreed that 2K Marin was "essentially closed" due to these layoffs, as the employee count had sunk to zero.[11] 2K Marin was shut down silently, which has not been publicly acknowledged by 2K.[12]
Despite this, Take-Two Interactive's chairman and chief executive officer, Strauss Zelnick, stated in May 2014 that 2K Marin was still active, and that future BioShock games would be developed at the studio.[13][14] 2K later announced in December 2019 that the new BioShock game was being developed by a new internal studio, Cloud Chamber, which had taken over the old 2K Marin spaces.[15]
